Four NASA astronauts have been chosen to fly on the newly created Space Shuttle mission, STS-121. It is the mission following the Space Shuttle's Return to Flight. Veteran astronaut Steven W. Lindsey (Col., USAF--pictured below) is the commander of STS-121. Mark E. Kelly (Cmdr., USN) is the pilot; Carlos I. Noriega (Lt. Col., USMC, Ret.) and Michael E. Fossum are the mission specialists. Other crewmembers will be named later. STS-121 was added to the flight schedule to help accommodate the growing list of requirements originally assigned to the Return to Flight mission. The crew will re-supply the International Space Station with equipment and consumables. They will also continue the testing and development of new hardware and procedures designed to make Space Shuttle flight

Expedition 8 Commander and NASA ISS Science Officer Mike Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri Friday wrapped up a busy week aboard the International Space Station. ISS activities included scientific experiments ranging from behavior of plasma dust subjected to radio waves in a vacuum to investigation of stresses on the feet and legs during spaceflight. Kaleri completed the first run of the Russian Plasma Crystal-3 experiment on Thursday, after preparations on Monday and experiment setup on Tuesday. The largely automated experiment studies crystallization of plasma dust subjected to high-frequency radio waves in a vacuum chamber...